


Five Ways the Words Are Never Said

by torches



Category: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Genre: Character of Color, F/M, Gen, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-10
Updated: 2009-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-09 14:07:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torches/pseuds/torches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But then, they're not really a <i>couple</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Ways the Words Are Never Said

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



1\. It gets to be a recurring joke between them, how often they trade each other that damn bear back and forth as a replacement for "I love you" (in any sense of the word); ten years after Heero saves Relena's life for the last time, it finally ends up parked in her bedroom for good, and instead Heero just sends cards.

2\. This is their relationship: hours, stolen here and there, wry sarcasm, and never a single time that either of them actually says anything like the words most people would assume a couple might say. But then, they're not really a _couple_; they've just hit a rhythm that makes it impossible to misunderstand each other anymore.

3\. Five years to the day of her father's death, Relena gets anonymous flowers. She doesn't cry. (Relena hasn't cried since she was Queen of the World; she's never been able to justify it and it feels too self-indulgent.) Instead, she sends a manual on engine maintenance to Duo on L2 and tells him to give it to Heero next time he stops by.

4\. Plausible deniability or _not_, Relena's not above telling Heero exactly where she's going to be if she thinks there's any chance where she's going to be might have even a whiff of secret MS development or ties to OZ. And he knows the only reasons he'd tell him personally is because she's worried. He only misses Wing Zero a little when he sets off an explosion too soon and spends a month without both eyebrows. Relena, of course, teases him about this _mercilessly_; he puts up with it in his best stoic fashion. (They both mean "I wish you'd be more _sane_ in the future," but don't bother saying words neither one will listen to.)

5\. The first time Relena met Heero, she only had one invitation left and she'd been holding onto it precisely to make a scene about who she'd pick. The first conversation they ever have, after he collapses in her arms in the bunker, she starts by saying "Thank you." He didn't give her what she thought she wanted. He just gave her what she needed. He taught her how to understand death. It made her stronger. She'd never thanked him for it before, so she wanted to fix that before he had to leave again.

And then she hugged him, and let him leave.


End file.
